Myles Turner Will Be Biggest Factor in Pacers Reaching Title Goals This Season

Although Indiana Pacers All-Stars Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam may be the 31-23 team's best players, their play may not be the deciding factor that either make or break their postseason success this spring.

Despite being a small market club that has long been averse to paying into the league's punitive luxury tax, Indiana managed to sneak into the Eastern Conference Finals last summer as a No. 6 seed.

This year, currently sporting the No. 4 seed (although the Milwaukee Bucks are nipping at their heels), Indiana seems almost better equipped for a deep playoff run — although two of the league's three best teams have improved since last year. The reigning champion Boston Celtics have looked great, but a bit more mortal in the regular season, at least.

3-and-D starting center Myles Turner, a free agent this summer, could be the X-factor who determines whether or not Indiana can make yet another deep playoff run. The big man just returned to the floor for Indiana on Thursday night following a two-week neck injury recovery.

Myles Turner returns to the lineup in a BIG way 🙌 pic.twitter.com/G8dzkrp7gy
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) February 21, 2025

Turner has never been an All-Star or even an All-Defensive Teamer, although he has twice finished among the top nine in Defensive Player of the Year voting. The 6-foot-11 Texas product is an athletic floor-space, equally adept at protecting the rim and converting triples at volume at a high level. This season, he's making 39.6 percent of his 5.2 long range takes per bout.

Per NBA.com, Turner's 4.5 net rating ranks fourth-best on the team among active rotation players, behind only Siakam's 10.8, Andrew Nembhard's 6.8 and Aaron Nesmith's 6.3. Again among active players, Turner boasts the fourth-best offensive rating on the team (2.5) but — in what feels like a fluke — just the seventh-best defensive rating (-2.0).

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Discounting lineups used for a single game (each of which feels like an unreliable outlier as a metric), Turner is a part of all four of the Pacers' top-scoring five-man lineups. It's also Turner and Haliburton who generate the most offense together as a two-man lineup (65.4 points), well clear of Haliburton and Nembhard (62.1 points) and Siakam and Haliburton (58.3 points)

Turner is essentially the ultimate modern role player center.

protecting the paint 🚫

Myles Turner had 7 blocks in last night's win, the 7th time in his career with 7+ blocks in a game 🫡 pic.twitter.com/LC7YwYtKG0
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) February 21, 2025

While the 28-year-old isn't exactly Nikola Jokic, he is the exact prototype of the player manning the paint every team wants: a big man with legitimate hops, size and length, who can defend the post but also be used as an offensive release valve on a contemporary team. He's never been an All-Star or even an All-Defensive Teamer, although he has twice finished among the top nine in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

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Indiana's games without Turner this year have exposed the team's limited margin for error when he's unavailable. Reserve center Thomas Bryant, starting in his stead, is a solid 3-point shooter (he's making 35.9 percent of his 2.3 treys a night for Indiana) but lacks Turner's athleticism or defensive instincts, making the team vulnerable down low during his minutes.

There is such a performative dropoff on the defensive end of the floor when Bryant or, occasionally, Obi Toppin comes in to replace Turner off the bench that an absence would essentially doom Indiana's fringe NBA Finals aspirations. Turner can actually handle elite East centers like New York Knicks All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns, Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star Jarrett Allen (and occasionally Evan Mobley at the five), Boston Celtics center Kristaps Porzingis, and Milwaukee Bucks All-Defensive Teamer Brook Lopez.

Across his 47 healthy games this season, Turner is averaging 15.1 points on a .471/.396/.755 slash line, 6.6 rebounds, 1.9 blocks, 1.5 assists and 0.8 steals a night.

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